They don't make much jam in east Africa, explains Veronica Molloy, dishing out some of her lime and tequila marmalade. "It's margarita in a jar instead of a glass."
She is still excited about the world of preserves she first entered in the 1960s when her mother-in-law taught her to select fruit and process it.
This kind of thing is unusual in her native Kenya but she has made up for it since, winning a lifetime achievement award at the 21st annual Irish Food Writers' Guild awards on Wednesday.
Molloy has been innovating her artisan Crossogue Preserves for decades since moving to Tipperary. "You have to be passionate about what you do and enjoy it. I love the challenge," she says.
“A lot of people can do the farmers’ markets but if you are in for the long haul, it’s jolly hard work. It’s not a hobby so you have to love it and get a buzz or it’s not worth it.”
The seven award recipients were each selected by guild members who collectively nominate and honour home-grown producers.
“As the consumers’ knowledge and interest in food provenance grows, so too does the need for complete transparency on the part of the producer,” said the organisation’s chair, Lizzie Gore-Grimes.
Fiona and Malcolm Falconer left a more hectic life in the UK for a four-and-a-half acre plot of land in Wexford. Having built an eco-house and a half-acre "foraging forest" for their children – the idea is you can eat whatever you pick – a rich surplus of produce led to the creation of their company, Wild About.
“Our whole ethos is we don’t import anything; we only use what we grow and source locally, seasonally,” Fiona says.
Nettles are a favourite and they have a 360-metre polytunnel in which to grow them. “My neighbours think I’m nuts.”
The Foods of Athenry in Co Galway, run by Siobhán and Paul Lawless, focuses on "free from" products, notably gluten free, marrying diet and taste.
"I felt that gluten free was the way to go," says Siobhán, pointing to sports people such Goran Ivanisevic and cyclists who also went sans gluten.
Spurning any notion of “fad”, she believes this latest food movement, like her business, must only advance.
“We like the analogy that we are like the chickens crossing the road and we are only halfway across. It would be just as dangerous to go back as to go forward.”
